08/16/2026
Well, event 31 of the Motorsports Safety Solutions calendar is done and as expected, it was a spectacular event.
361 entries started the race, this year for the first time ever, in Dayton Nevada. That already puts many challenges on every aspect of the race. in a typical V2R, the last 40 miles is always the most challenging and this year we started the race with it! not just for all our "normal" (and I use that term loosely) racers , but we even had the youth class start in Dayton and race to Top Gun - More on that later.
Motorsports Safety Solutions tackled this race with 16 Medical teams, 9 dedicated retrievals and amazing support from Battle Born Medivac.
Bikes started at first light like every V2R and had to race into the sunrise and were followed by unlimited vehicles roughly 3.5 hours later. At noon, the limited cars started and a little after 2pm, the Youth racers started their race. For me personally, i focused on the youth and decided early on I would chase them in our Polaris General - a daunting task cause these kids hauled ass - About mile 16, I fount one upside down in the track. Got him upright and on his way - a mile down the road, one of young ladies was stopped right by the T917 that was having a bad day - she had two front flats. T917 pulled two tires from their car and fixed her up so she could keep going. Another mile, another your racer off course with a destroyed left front spindle. Grabber the racer and let the car and off we went. couple more miles down the road we found another youth with a flat tire and blown motor. towed him out to the road crossing delivered the other one to his family - 9 youth started the race and 6 were able to finish. I am really proud of this next gen of racers, and love that they are getting a place to learn how to desert race!
Down the course, our teams were helping several injured bike riders, rolled vehicles, broken bikes and vehicles, and stuck chase trucks...
For the first time in 16 years, I did not make it to the finish line. In fact I didn't even make it til the end of the race. at the end of the day though, that was my personal biggest take away from this race on our side. We had the dedicated people where we needed them, when we needed them. We broke lots of stuff, but we got where we needed to be to help racers.
A massive thank you to the entire Motorsports Safety Solutions team that made it happen this year. Also a massive thank you to my Wife Pixie, and Daughter Brooke, who are not only part of my team but helped greatly with logistics and things while I am dealing with a malfunctioning heart. Hopefully ill get a heart jumpstart in a couple days, some minor surgery in a few weeks, and be feeling better and able to return to helping my team the way they deserve to be supported.
By the numbers:
25 Motorsports Safety Solutions Teams
54 Team Members
505 miles of Race Course
Support from Battle Born Medovac with 3 Different helicopters
4 Patients transported
361 Entries / 973 Participants registered
and I have no friggin clue how many vehicles recovered / towed off the course.
and even less of a clue of how many chase trucks were recovered in silt...
Couple of teams are already headed to #32 on our calendar for the week, and #33 will be back to one of my favorite places, Pioche Nevada with the amazing team at Nevada State Racing Association for their race on Saturday!